AS THE Royal College of Nursing celebrates its centenary, Hannah Britt speaks to three generations of one family about what makes the profession so special.

WE ALL ATE, WORKED AND LIVED TOGETHER

Ivy Cooper-Barlow, 92, lives in Northwood, north London

WHEN I was 13 a family friend, a most beautiful little girl with a shock of golden curls, died from diphtheria. Immunisations weren’t readily available back then so lots of people caught highly infectious diseases. Her death was a shock and made me realise that I wanted to help people like her.

So in 1941, aged 18, I enrolled at an isolation hospital just outside Newcastle and trained to be a nurse, specialising in infectious diseases. Purse strings were tight during the Second World War so we had to buy our own uniforms – a dress, white apron and matching bonnet.

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To stop the spread of infection, every time I moved from ward to ward I’d have to change my clothes and have a bath to disinfect my skin. In those days the life of a nurse was very different to what it is now.

We all lived in the nurses’ home which was attached to the hospital. We worked, ate and lived together. We became each other’s family. It was good that we all got along so well as free time was scarce.

We worked almost every day, even Christmas Day. We would dress up and entertain the patients and doctors. It was a really enjoyable time in my life.

Back then we got to know our patients really well because they tended to stay in hospital for much longer periods of time. For example, after giving birth mothers were in bed for a week. Nowadays most women can leave the same day.

TIM CLARKE

To stop the spread of infection nurses had to change clothes when they moved wards

In 1959 I was lucky enough to join a mission to Likoma Island in Lake Malawi, Africa, with London University. It was here that I met my late husband Thomas.

There was only one hospital on the island and everything from supplies to electricity was limited. I treated patients who were suffering with malaria and also shared my nursing skills with the locals.

Thomas and I loved it so much that we didn’t return to the UK until our eldest child, Sarah, was 11.

Back in Britain, I continued my work. It fills me with pride to be the first of three generations of nurses in our family.

TIM CLARKE

Ivy went on a mission to Likoma Island in 1959

I COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT MUM’S HELP

Sarah Wheatland, 52, lives in Northwood, London, with her husband Martin. They have six children

GROWING up in Malawi, I used to love visiting mum at the hospital where she worked. I was fascinated by all the specimens in jars and I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to learn what they all were.

After getting married at 18, I had six children in quick succession so it wasn’t until I turned 28 that I started training to become a nurse. As my mum was on the verge of retiring she helped with child care. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her help.

After working in paediatrics at St Mary’s Hospital, London, I moved to The Portland Hospital in 2013 to head up the children’s unit. Being able to help children was a joy and I will always remember one little patient in particular, a one-year-old girl with leukaemia. She was at death’s door and needed a bone marrow transplant.

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Sarah lived in Malawi until the age of 11

Deciding to go ahead with the transplant was a tough decision because even if she survived the procedure, which wipes out the immune system, she would have been extremely vulnerable to infection. Yet luckily this little girl was a fighter and when I met her again two years later in the outpatient department, I felt overjoyed to see her running around and so full of life.

When you look back and realise you’ve made a difference to that one person, there is no better feeling. Nursing gets a bad press but there are so many wonderful things about it and I simply can’t imagine doing anything else.

For me, being able to give the best possible care is what drives everything I do.

I now work with adult patients at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which took a bit of getting used to as I had worked with children for so long. Having been in the profession for 24 years, I’ve seen lots of changes, some good and some bad.

Nurses are expected to do so much now and there’s so much technology that they have to get to grips with.

I’m so pleased that two of my daughters have decided to follow in my footsteps. The industry is changing all the time and they are at the forefront.

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Mrs Wheatland worked in paediatrics at St Mary's Hospital in London

WE ALWAYS ASK GRAN FOR ADVICE

Alexandra Try, 32, lives in Ruislip, London, with her husband Rob. Her sister Annabelle Wheatland, 29, lives in Northwood, London

NURSING is in our blood, so when the time came to choose a career it was an easy decision to make. We both followed in mum’s footsteps by studying at Buckinghamshire College and working at St Mary’s Hospital before moving to The Portland Hospital.

The profession is very different to how it was in grandma’s day. Technologies and treatments have changed and nurses are expected to be very multi-skilled and hands-on. You have to be tech-savvy and able to work all the computer systems and equipment, such as those for observation-taking.

A lot of wards are starting to use the likes of iPads to capture data. Advances in medicine mean there are more patients than ever because people are living longer.

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Nurses now have to be tech-savvy and able to work all the computer systems and equipment

Yet fundamentally the job still comes down to care. It’s about you and the patient. You never know who will be coming through the door next.

We ask mum and grandma for advice all the time, especially when the going gets tough.

For example a few years ago we met a four-year-old girl with a very unusual lung disease. Her condition was so serious that she was in and out of hospital for months on end. We got to know her and her twin sister really well.

We were devastated when she was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit and only given days to live. Before she passed away we took an imprint of both sisters’ handprints and footprints together.

The medicine and technology may have changed over the years but one thing that remains the same is the dedication and care we give to our patients.